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pire

worst

adjective noun PEER Less Common
Descriptions & Qualities Degree

Usage Note

Pire is the comparative and superlative of mauvais (bad) when expressing a qualitative judgment: c'est pire que prévu (it's worse than expected); le pire (the worst). Note that plus mauvais is also technically correct but pire is preferred in spoken French. As a noun, le pire means 'the worst (thing)'. The adverbial equivalent is pis, which is now mostly literary.

Examples

"C'est le pire film que j'aie vu."

Natural Translation

It is the worst film I have ever seen.

Literal Translation

It-is the worst film that I-have seen

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